BlackBerry PlayBook 7" tablet

I borrowed a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet during a trip to Orlando,
Florida and attempted to use it for the typical things that I would
normally do with a laptop computer while traveling.

The first failure occurred attempting to connect the PlayBook to the
wireless network at a Holiday Inn Express, which requires visiting a
Web page to enter a password and checking a box to accept terms and
conditions. The browser on the PlayBook rendered the form properly and
displayed the "you are connected" confirmation page, but every
subsequent attempt to use Internet failed and/or landed the user back
at the "please type in the network password" page. I had no difficulty
connecting a $500 Lenovo laptop computer running Windows 7.

Email/Gmail

Eventually I ended up in a place with a fully open wireless network
and managed to connect (the PlayBook does not offer a 3G or 4G radio,
though it can get access at least to email through a Bluetooth
connection to a standard BlackBerry). It was time to check email.

I searched for "gmail" in AppWorld, hoping to find a dedicated client
program. Instead, the AppWorld search engine returned a blank screen
with no indication that no matching apps were found or that the search
was complete.

I tried reading Gmail from the Web browser on the PlayBook. The page
is rendered in a layout that I've never seen before, either on a
mobile phone or a desktop computer browser. I was unable either to
delete or reply to messages. Buttons that said "delete" or "send" were
presented, but then pressing those buttons did not result in any
action or change in the screen content.

Video Chat

I searched for an application matching "skype" and got the same blank
screen as when I'd searched for "gmail".

Reading News

Unable to communicate with anyone, it was time to try being a media
consumer. Newspaper Web pages came up in a shrunken size with clunky
jaggy fonts that were impossible to read. It looked as though
everything had been rendered first on a 1920x1080 pixel screen and
then scaled digitally by processing the pixels down to the 1024x600
PlayBook resolution. The result was less readable than the same page
on a standard Android mobile phone (3.7" screen).

Playing Videos

The National Film Board of Canada has an app for this
Canadian-designed tablet. Although three or four attempts to play
videos were unsuccessful, with the device ignoring my presses on the
"play" button, I was finally able to get videos to play. The sound
from the built-in speaker is rather tinny. If placed on a desk, the
screen is a bit too small for immersive viewing. If held in one's
hand, a natural question would be "Why wouldn't I just play this on my
phone and hold the device a little closer to my eyes?"

Overall Interface

Due to the compact size, the on-screen keyboard is reasonably easy and
fast to use for typing with one's thumbs, much better than the
keyboard on a touch-screen mobile phone (e.g., iPhone or Droid X) and
possibly better than the touch-screen keyboard on the iPad.

The touch interface requires training and practice. It is impossible
to use the device, for example, simply by touching the backlit portion
of the screen and the buttons on the side. The borders of the frame
are also touch-sensitive and are required for basic operations, such
as getting back to the home screen. The user swipes down, for example,
to open a settings menu. If he or she swipes up, what happens?
Nothing. The user is supposed to swipe down again to undo he or she
just did. How it is intuitive to pull something down and have it move
up, I'm not sure.

Conclusion

Not useful as a computer; too light to serve as a doorstop.

My friend has not asked for the tablet back (he got it for free at a conference).